I am into this wine now. Recently I had a great Seghesio zin and have been enjoying Ravenswood zin. It is just a full and flavorful wine (how's that lingo? ). Anyway, my question is about decanting. Since these are fairly young, should I be decanting Zinfandels every time?

And, would these be good with Thanksgiving food?

I typically only decant wines that have some age or if they have any sediment. I'd love to hear others opinions.

I like Zin's with Thanksgiving. I've served the Seghesio Sonoma Zin at Thanksgiving and it was very good.

Decanting a young red will help air it. I don't find this necessary for most Zinfandels I have had. If its a young Barolo or Brunello I might decant it to speed the airing along. If a wine is old and full of sediment, I do decant, but this is a different process than for a young wine.

With a young red, I splash and try to get as much air into the wine as possible. I pour it so the stream of wine from the bottle hits low in the neck of the decanter and the wine falls to the bottom of the decanter and splashes. Aside from being showy, it assures the maximum airation.

For an old red, I use a candle or flashlight to illuminate the neck. I hold the wine, which has been standing for several days, in my right hand and the decanter in my left. The neck of the wine bottle is over the light source. I begin to bring both decanter and bottle to a more nearly horizontal position and, slowly and smoothly, let the wine trail into the decanter. The idea here is to disturb the wine as little as possible, and to get as little air in the wine. I look at the wine as I pour. The light shining up thru the neck of the bottle allows me to see the heavy sediments moving up the side of the botle. When the sediment gets to the tip of the bottle, I stop pouring. The wine in the decanter is free from gross sediment and the stuff in the bottle has it all. I let the wine in the decanter sit for 5-10-20 minutes before pouring, depending on how old it is.

Great guys! Thanks. I will try them for Thanksgiving. (That Seghesio Sonoma was soooo good. It was a 2002.) Whole Foods here has the 2003 for $23, but I haven't found the 2002. Not sure if there will be much of a difference.

Also, how young is young? I brought a 2001 Vino Nobile Riserva from Italy this year as well as a 2000 Brunello. Wait to drink? (Yes, I bought the less expensive Brunello--I haven't been able to go past $50 for wine yet. I feel like I don't know enough to fully appreciate it yet! )

Thanks again.

Fre wines under 10 years of bottle age need decanting for sediment but this can vary. If the wine is filtered and dfined prior to bottling, it will go a lot longer before needing decanting. A wine made with minimal processing, and not fining and filtering will need decanting earlier. Sorry but there is no rule of thumb.